2.27.2006

Throughout the existence of the company, Nintendo's always had fair warning of threats coming their way. They should have known that Sega would eventually be a force to be reckoned with; nobody else has ever failed that much and kept on trucking, all in the pursuit of victory. And with the Genesis, Sega showed it knew how to rumble. With mature titles and a knockout sports selection, it was able to eventually grab the leading market share in the United States. Nintendo was stunned.

How could this company, the same company that had the ineptitude to showcase a mediocre franchise (at best) as their mascot (Ed Note: Alex the Kidd, for those of you wondering), overtake the largest and most successful supplier of video games in the world? I'll tell you how. Sega saw that as gamers grew up, they wanted dark, moody content that would satisfy their at-the-time-untapped teen angst. Games like Altered Beast, Shining Force, and the breakout hit Sonic the Hedgehog are still known as classics of their respective genres. Sega came a long way since the SG-Mark III, to say the least...

Luckily for Nintendo, they had an asset that would bail them out of their doom.

Ultimate Innovators

Chris and Tim Stamper were just a couple of game-crazy teens in England when Space Invaders was a massive hit, but even then, they were gathering information and experience, readying themselves for what was to come. Then, in the early 80's, they broke out as Ultimate - Play The Game, a trading name for Ashby Computer and Graphics, their small personal business. Mostly working off of the Sinclair Spectrum, they had amazing success; their first game ever, Jetpac, sold 300,000 copies.

Obviously, when the NES was released, the Brothers Stamper were interested in seeing what they could do with it (much like our fabled tech junkies of old, Argonaut). Now operating as Rareware, they released such classics as the insanely difficult Battletoads, RC Pro-Am, and Marble Madness. In all, Rareware produced almost 60 titles on the NES, which of course caught the attention of Nintendo of America President, Minoru Arakawa, who had already been impressed with the boys' work. When the SNES was revealed, Rareware went to work on a game that would change gaming forever...

Dig This Monkey Rap: Money Money Money

To be truthful, the Stampers and Co. didn't release that many SNES games; this wasn't due to a lack of interest though. It was because they were trying to seek out the system's true potential, which they ultimately found and perfected. This, crossed with the idea of translating high resolution graphics to the SNES, amounted to an impressive visual representation; pre-rendered polygons allowed subsequent games to appear much more advanced than anything Nintendo had done before, even surpassing Argonaut's Super FX chip. So what did they use it for? As if you didn't know...

DKC was, obviously, a huge success, selling eight million copies. Along with the seminal fighting game Killer Instinct, Rareware had proven that it could hang with the big boys at NCL. Not only had they produced sine of the best 16-Bit games ever, the success of said games propelled the SNES back into a clear #1 spot in the West.

Seeing their worth, NCL bought a 25% stake in the English developer. And for good reason; they had saved Nintendo. And when the N64 hit, they would time and time again with hits like Banjoe Kazooie, Perfect Dark, GoldenEye, and Conker's Bad Fur Day. It was meant to last, though, because in 2002... well, let's tell that story another time.

Switching Gears

In case you haven't noticed, this series has dealt a lot with Nintendo in the West; their dealings (or lack thereof) with Atari, their partnership with Argonaut, with Rare, and the Genesis beating them out for Top Dog in said territory. But now it's time to head back in time a little bit; it's time to switch over to Japan.

They say that every action has an equal and oppossite reaction. Well, if there was ever a reaction to the tyranical rule of Hiroshi Yamauchi, it was dealt by a college dropout named Hironobu Sakaguchi and his Final Fantasy...

2.16.2006

By the time 1986 rolled around, the NES was still doing phenominally well in Japan and oversees. These were the glory days; the days when Miyamoto and a couple other guys could have some bad sushi, and in the process of clutching their stomachs, have a stroke of genious and develop a game around it. These were the simple times of 8-Bit Bliss. And then, as usual, Sega fucked it up...

Sega, formerly known as Service Games (and before that, Standard Games), was a moderately successful coin-op amusement company that also owned a few bowling alleys (some of which held Gunpei Yokoi's earlier efforts, oddly enough).

2.12.2006

Hubbs: Since not many people in the US know who you are, can you introduce yourself and give us a tiny bit about yourself and career highlights?

Alex Verrey: Sure thing. Well my name is Alex Verrey, I’m 6”3 tall, and a Gemini. I’m ‘Big Boned’ though devilishly attractive. My turn on’s are warm fires, long walks on the beach and chocolate. My turn offs are arrogance, pollution and cruelty to animals.

On a slightly more serious note, my real name is indeed Alex Verrey, I’m better known here in the UK as the ‘Tubby Titan of Tea Time Telly’ “Big Boy Barry”. Playing the character of Barry has allowed me to present more hours of video game TV than anyone else in the UK, which included a pretty cool video game sitcom by the name of ‘Barry’s Joypad’ and then ‘Barry TV’. The show debuted as the second highest rated program on Sky TV (Just behind The Simpsons!) and co-starred the talented Mr David Walliams of UK smash hit ‘Little Britain’ fame.

2.06.2006

Just thought I'd let you guys in on a couple things. Firstly, I got a confirmation on the Bethesda interview. It's coming... and it's gonna be awesome. Robert and I are both really excited about it. Secondly, he's got us ANOTHER interview coming up soon. Stuff's just rolling in the right direction for us at the moment.

I wish I could say I was working on a new feature, but I'm really feeling worn out now. With work at Planet GameCube piling up and school stuff demanding more and more attention, I feel a little exhausted. I think I just need some R&R, though. Once Spring Break arises in the next four or so weeks, I'll get my medicine and I'll be ready to crank out some gangbusters. Fireworks, man! Fireworks!

2.01.2006

Well I am currently trying to get a few things in order. Recently I installed Windows Vista Beta 2 and in a way it messed up my pc for a time. A partition was created giving me the option to boot to either XP or Vista but because some files were moved around I couldn't boot XP. SO buying myself 5 DVD-RW's I was able to back up what I needed and do a complete reinstall after wiping out my harddrive.

Now everything seems to be in order again except for the fact that I can't get Neverwinter Nights working. But I am now working on finalizing my interview with Mr. Alex Verrey from the UK gaming scene.